Day 2 of court: Murray tried to get back home

In the second session of the trial of the accused in Michael Jackson’s involuntary manslaughter case, the lawyer who had drafted Conrad Murray’s contract with AEG said he was stunned and amazed.

Kathy Jorri said she was surprised by Murray’s request for a heart-rate monitoring device and an assistant doctor. In response, Murray told Jorri that because of Michael’s high level of physical activity at age 50, it was necessary to have this device as a precaution. The assistant was also needed so that if Murray was tired or not available, nothing would go wrong with the work.

Jorri said from the stand: “Dr. Murray kept telling me without interruption that Michael Jackson was in an excellent physical condition.”

Jorri said that when, with Murray’s help, she tried to gather Michael Jackson’s medical information from the past five years to provide to an insurance company, Murray told her that he had been Michael’s personal doctor for the past three years and that there was no special medical information because his health condition was very good.

Jorri said the contract with Murray had not been signed by Michael, and therefore the requested equipment was not delivered to her, and AEG also did not pay this doctor a salary.

Murray’s defense attorney, Michael Flanagan, asked Jorri whether she had ever asked Murray about providing overnight care for Michael, and Jorri replied that nothing had been mentioned.

Another witness from yesterday, Michael Amir Williams, was Michael Jackson’s personal assistant.

Williams described the events of the day Michael died, saying that at 12:13 p.m. he missed Murray’s phone call because he was in the shower. When he came out, he received the message Murray had left on his phone:

“I don’t remember the exact wording, but it said ‘Call me quickly. Call me quickly. Thank you.’”

This phone message was played in court.

At 12:15, Williams called Murray back, and Murray told him to get there quickly because Mr. Jackson had shown a bad reaction. During these phone calls, Murray never said that a serious danger had occurred and he did not ask Williams to notify the 911 emergency service.

Since Williams was far from Michael’s home, Murray asked him to send someone to help at the house. At 12:18, Williams called Alberto Alvarez, one of the security guards at the home, and told him to go to Michael’s room. Alvarez arrived there with the phone in hand, and Williams said that at that moment he could hear Murray’s voice in the background, and then the call ended.

Finally, at 12:20, the 911 call was made, and Williams arrived at the home at the same time as the emergency responders.

“It was really horrible. When I got there, they were taking him from his room down the stairs on a gurney.”

He described Murray’s behavior when Michael was finally placed into the hospital ambulance as nervous and aggressive. Williams said that from this behavior he understood there was a serious danger.

Williams said that after Michael’s death was announced at the hospital, Murray tried to return to his home to collect things that Michael didn’t want people to know about.

“He said there were creams in Michael’s room that he didn’t want people to know about. He asked me—or someone else—to take him to the house so he could collect those creams.”

Williams found this request inappropriate and strange, so he lied to Murray and told him that the police had seized his car’s switch. Williams also told other people not to take Murray home, and he contacted other security personnel and warned them not to allow anyone to enter the house.

But why? Williams replied: “Only because Murray wanted to go back home.”

Murray then told Williams that he was hungry and wanted to eat something, and repeated his request to take him home, but Williams refused again.

During questioning by the defense attorney, Williams agreed that until August 31 he had not informed the police about Murray’s request. However, a few hours after Murray’s request to return home was raised, he had spoken with an investigator.

Paul Gongaware, an AEG executive who had also testified on Tuesday, was back on the stand. He said that on June 23 and 24, Michael appeared in rehearsals as cheerful and full of energy. He said he never discussed Michael’s health with Murray, but he had told him that they would be happy to provide him with whatever he needed to care for Michael.

Ed Chernoff, Murray’s defense attorney, asked many questions about Arnold Klein, Michael’s dermatologist. The lawyers believe Klein had been injecting Demerol into Michael. They ultimately faced an objection from the prosecutor.

Gongaware said that once Michael returned from Klein’s office looking tired and drained.

Source: eMJey.com / LA Times / Reuters